Norton refused testimony in anti-abortion hearing

House Republicans pushing a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia aren’t allowing Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton to testify at a hearing Thursday.

The bill's lead sponsor, Arizona Republican Trent Franks, chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. Norton, a Democrat, wrote a letter to Franks last week asking to testify.

But Republicans aren't repeating the mistake they made earlier this year, when a male-heavy panel during a hearing on contraception prompted Norton and other Democrats to walk out in protest. Christy Zink, a George Washington University professor who was forced to have an abortion late in her pregnancy due to complications, will testify.

"The post-20-week D.C. abortion ban bill targets an entire group of individuals, women who live in the District of Columbia, and their constitutional rights," Norton said in a statement. "Using the women of one congressional district to reach for extreme encroachments on women’s reproductive rights has become a pattern of the House Republican majority, but also reflected nationwide. We will vigorously fight the bullying tactics of the Republican majority against the District’s women."